Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 06:46:14 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: Different approach to terrorist threat



 
> Let's Look Reality in the Face. By Susan Sontag
Monday, September 17,
2001
> (Le Monde )
> 
> For a terrified and sad New Yorker, America never
seemed to be 
further
> away
> from recognizing reality than facing the monstrous
dose of reality of
> Tuesday, September 11.
> 
> The gulf which separates what occurred and what one
should 
understand,
on
> one hand, and the sheer deception and self-satisfied
nonsense peddled
by
> practically all the leading public figures of
American life, and its
> television commentators, is stupifying and
depressing.
> 
> The voices authorized to keep track of the events
seem to be joined 
in
a
> campaign aimed at treating the public like children.
Who has
acknowledged
> that it wasn't a matter of "cowardly" aggression
against
"civilization,"
> or
> "freedom," or "humanity," or the "free world," but
an aggression
against
> the
> United States, the self-proclaimed world superpower,
an aggression
which
> is
> the consequence of specific American actions and
interests? How many
> Americans know about the continuation of American
bombings in Iraq?
And
> since we're using the word "cowardly," shouldn't it
be applied to
those
> who
> kill from high in the sky, out of the range of
possible reprisals,
rather
> than to those who are willing to die in order to
kill others?
> 
> As for courage -- a morally neutral virtue --
whatever one can say of
> those
> who perpetrated Tuesday's slaughter, they were not
cowards.
> 
> At all costs American leaders want to make us
believe that everything
is
> all
> right. America is not afraid. Our resolve is not
broken. "They" will
be
> hunted down and punished (whoever "they" might be).
We have a
> robot-president who assures us that America always
has its head held
high.
> 
> A whole range of public personalities, vigorously
opposed to the
foreign
> policy of this administration, apparently feel free
to say nothing
but: we
> are all united behind president Bush.
> 
> We've been reassured that everything was going along
well, or close 
to
it,
> even on a day marked by the stamp of infamy, and
even if America was
now
> at
> war. Yet all is not well. And this isn't Pearl
Harbor. Considerable
> reflection is going to be necessary, maybe it's
being done now in
> Washington
> and elsewhere, on the colossal failure of American
intelligence and
> counter-intelligence, on the possible options for
American foreign
policy,
> in the Middle East in particular, and on what
constitutes an
intelligent
> program for military defense.
> 
> But those in charge of official functions, those who
wish to be and
those
> who have been in the past, have decided -- with the
willing 
complicity
of
> the major media -- not to ask the public to bear too
great a part of
the
> burden of reality. The complacent and unanimously
lauded platitudes 
of
a
> Congress composed of one Soviet-like party appeared
contemptible. The
> unanimity of moralizing rhetoric, aimed at masking
reality, poured 
out
by
> leading Americans, and the media, in recent days is
unworthy of a
mature
> democracy.
> 
> Leading American figures, and those who would like
to be, have let us
know
> that their duty is only one of manipulation: to
impart confidence and
> manage
> the pain. Politics, the politics of democracy-which
involve
disagreements
> and encourage sincerity-have been replaced by
psychotherapy. Let's
suffer
> together. But let's not be stupid together. A little
historical
conscience
> can help us understand exactly what happened, and
what might continue
to
> happen.
> 
> "Our country is strong", they keep telling us. For
my part, that
really
> doesn't console me. Who can doubt that America is
strong? But America
> should
> not be only that.
>  --- hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net> wrote: > For what
it may be worth, 
> 
> Harry Browne writes on the subject, more
> installments to follow.
> 
> http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24787
> 
> 
> Hugh
> 
>  

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